Henri Fayol
Henri Fayol (born 1841 in Istanbul;
died 1925 in Paris) was a French management theorist.
Henri Fayol was one of the most influential contributors to modern
concepts of management, having proposed that there are five primary
functions of management:
(1)
Planning,
(2)
Organizing,
(3)
Commanding,
(4)
Coordinating,
and
(5)
Controlling
(Fayol, 1949, 1987).
Controlling is described in the sense
that a manager must receive feedback on a process in order to make
necessary adjustments. Fayol's work has stood the test of time and has
been shown to be relevant and appropriate to contemporary management.
Many of today’s management texts including Daft (2005) have reduced the
five functions to four: (1) planning, (2) organizing, (3) leading, and
(4) controlling. Daft's text is organized around Fayol's four functions.
Fayol believed management theories could be developed, then taught. His
theories were published in a monograph titled General and Industrial
Management (1916). This is an extraordinary little book that offers the
first theory of general management and statement of management
principles.
Fayol suggested that it is important to have unity of command: a concept
that suggests there should be only one supervisor for each person in an
organization. Like Socrates, Fayol suggested that management is a
universal human activity that applies equally well to the family as it
does to the corporation.
Fayol has been described as the father of modern operational management
theory (George, p. 146). Although his ideas have become a universal part
of the modern management concepts, some writers continue to associate
him with Frederick Winslow Taylor. Taylor's scientific management deals
with the efficient organisation of production in the context of a
competitive enterprise that has to control its production costs. That
was only one of the many areas that Fayol addressed. Perhaps the
connection with Taylor is more one of time, than of perspective.
According to Claude George (1968), a primary difference between Fayol
and Taylor was that Taylor viewed management processes from the bottom
up, while Fayol viewed it from the top down. George's comment may have
originated from Fayol himself. In the classic General and Industrial
Management Fayol wrote that "Taylor's approach differs from the one we
have outlined in that he examines the firm from the "bottom up." He
starts with the most elemental units of activity -- the workers' actions
-- then studies the effects of their actions on productivity, devises
new methods for making them more efficient, and applies what he learns
at lower levels to the hierarchy...(Fayol, 1987, p. 43)." He suggests
that Taylor has staff analysts and advisors working with individuals at
lower levels of the organization to identify the ways to improve
efficiency. According to Fayol, the approach results in a "negation of
the principle of unity of command (p. 44)." Fayol criticized Taylor’s
functional management in this way. “… the most marked outward
characteristics of functional management lies in the fact that each
workman, instead of coming in direct contact with the management at one
point only, … receives his daily orders and help from eight different
bosses…(Fayol, 1949, p. 68.)” Those eight, Fayol said, were (1) route
clerks, (2) instruction card men, (3) cost and time clerks, (4) gang
bosses, (5) speed bosses, (6) inspectors, (7) repair bosses, and the (8)
shop disciplinarian (p. 68). This, he said, was an unworkable situation,
and that Taylor must have somehow reconciled the dichotomy in some way
not described in Taylor's works.
Fayol graduated from the mining academy of St. Etienne (École des Mines
de Saint-Étienne) in 1860. The nineteen-year old engineer started at the
mining company Compagnie de Commentry-Fourchambeau-Decazeville,
ultimately acting as its managing director from 1888 to 1918. Based
largely on his own management experience, Fayol developed his concept of
administration. The 14 principles of management were discussed in detail
in his book published in 1917, Administration industrielle et générale.
It was first published in English as General and Industrial Management
in 1949 and is widely considered a foundational work in classical
management theory. In 1987 Irwin Gray edited and published a revised
version of Fayol’s classic that was intended to “free the reader from
the difficulties of sifting through language and thought that are
limited to the time and place of composition (Fayol, 1987, p. ix).” Gray
retained the 14 points shown below.
Fayol 14 Principles of Management
1. Specialization of labour. Specializing encourages continuous
improvement in skills and the development of improvements in methods.
2. Authority. The right to give
orders and the power to exact obedience.
3. Discipline. No slacking, bending
of rules. The workers should be obedient and respectful of the
organization.
4. Unity of command. Each employee
has one and only one boss.
5. Unity of direction. A single mind
generates a single plan and all play their part in that plan.
6. Subordination of Individual
Interests. When at work, only work things should be pursued or thought
about.
7. Remuneration. Employees receive
fair payment for services, not what the company can get away with.
8. Centralization. Consolidation of
management functions. Decisions are made from the top.
9. Chain of Superiors (line of
authority). Formal chain of command running from top to bottom of the
organization, like military
10. Order. All materials and
personnel have a prescribed place, and they must remain there.
11. Equity. Equality of treatment
(but not necessarily identical treatment)
12. Personnel Tenure. Limited
turnover of personnel. Lifetime employment for good workers.
13. Initiative. Thinking out a plan
and do what it takes to make it happen.
14. Esprit de corps. Harmony,
cohesion among personnel. It's a great source of strength in the
organisation. Fayol stated that for promoting esprit de corps, the
principle of unity of command should be observed and the dangers of
divide and rule and the abuse of written communication should be
avoided.
Henri Fayol
Henri Fayol, a French engineer and
director of mines, was little unknown outside France until the late 40s
when Constance Storrs published her translation of Fayol's 1916 "
Administration Industrielle et Generale ".
Fayol's career began as a mining
engineer. He then moved into research geology and in 1888 joined,
Comambault as Director. Comambault was in difficulty but Fayol turned
the operation round. On retirement he published his work - a
comprehensive theory of administration - described and classified
administrative management roles and processes then became recognised and
referenced by others in the growing discourse about management. He is
frequently seen as a key, early contributor to a classical or
administrative management school of thought (even though he himself
would never have recognised such a "school").
His theorising about administration was
built on personal observation and experience of what worked well in
terms of organisation. His aspiration for an "administrative science"
sought a consistent set of principles that all organizations must apply
in order to run properly.
F. W. Taylor published "The Principles
of Scientific Management" in the USA in 1911, and Fayol in 1916 examined
the nature of management and administration on the basis of his French
mining organisation experiences..
Fayol synthesised various tenets or
principles of organisation and management and Taylor on work methods,
measurement and simplification to secure efficiencies. Both referenced
functional specialisation.
Both Fayol and Taylor were arguing that
principles existed which all organisations - in order to operate and be
administered efficiently - could implement. This type of assertion
typifies a "one best way" approach to management thinking. Fayol's five
functions are still relevant to discussion today about management roles
and action.
-
to forecast and plan - prevoyance
examine the future and draw up plans
of action
-
to organise
build up the structure, material and
human of the undertaking
-
to command
maintain activity among the personnel
-
to co-ordinate
bind together, unify and harmonise
activity and effort
-
to control
see that everything occurs in
conformity with policy and practise
Henri Fayol
Fayol was a key figure in the
turn-of-the-century Classical School of management theory. He saw a
manager's job as:
* planning
* organizing
* commanding
* coordinating activities
* controlling performance
Notice that most of these activities are very task-oriented, rather than
people-oriented. This is very like
Frederick Taylor
and
Scientific Management.
Fayol laid down the following principles of organization (he called them
principles of management) (Learn
more about 14 principles of management):
1. Specialization of labor. Specializing encourages continuous
improvement in skills and the development of improvements in methods.
2. Authority. The right to give orders and the power to exact
obedience.
3. Discipline. No slacking, bending of rules.
4. Unity of command. Each employee has one and only one boss.
5. Unity of direction. A single mind generates a single plan and all
play their part in that plan.
6. Subordination of Individual Interests. When at work, only work
things should be pursued or thought about.
7. Remuneration. Employees receive fair payment for services, not
what the company can get away with.
8. Centralization. Consolidation of management functions. Decisions
are made from the top.
9. Scalar Chain (line of authority). Formal chain of command running
from top to bottom of the organization, like military
10. Order. All materials and personnel have a prescribed place, and
they must remain there.
11. Equity. Equality of treatment (but not necessarily identical
treatment)
12. Personnel Tenure. Limited turnover of personnel. Lifetime
employment for good workers.
13. Initiative. Thinking out a plan and do what it takes to make it
happen.
14. Esprit de corps. Harmony, cohesion among personnel.
Out of the 14, the most important elements are specialization, unity of
command, scalar chain, and, coordination by managers (an amalgam of
authority and unity of direction).
References
http://www.bola.biz/competence/fayol.html
http://www.analytictech.com/mb021/fayol.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Fayol |
